If there’s a bright spot for the Tyrone Lady Eagles in their 56-34 loss to Bishop McCort in the first round of the District 6-AA playoffs last night at Hollidaysburg Senior High School, it’s this: 10 weeks ago, had Tyrone shot as poorly as it did last night, it would have been because the team had few scorers, and those who were weren’t the best of shooters.
Last night, the Lady Eagles’ poor shooting performance was just that: a bad night from the field, one of the Lady Eagles’ worst in weeks.
Not that that’s any consolation for a team that had just spent the last four weeks righting its offensive ship and winning four of its last five just to get into the postseason.
Nor is it any consolation for senior Hilary McNelis, who ended her varsity career scoring nine points to put her over the 400-mark for the second consecutive season.
“We picked a bad night not to shoot well,” said Tyrone coach Jim Swaney. “McCort deserves a lot of credit for that … it wasn’t one of our better efforts.”
That’s not to infer that it was one of the Lady Eagles’ worst efforts. Their 34 percent shooting performance (13-for-38) was nowhere near the poorest of Tyrone’s shooting percentages this season, and it wasn’t much worse than the Lady Crushers’ 40 percent.
The difference came in the kinds of shots the teams were getting. McCort, through the first half able to set up in it’s guard-oriented half-court offense, used its quickness on the perimeter and a solid weave to get many of its points going to the basket at its own pace.
Tyrone, meanwhile, flustered by the Lady Crushers’ in-your-face full-court pressure, worked at a more frenetic pace, often settling for rushed shots when it got shots at all. In the first quarter, the Lady Eagles turned the ball over eight times, and never gained their composure against McCort’s press until late in the period.
By then, it was 21-8.
“Their defensive pressure dictated what happened early on,” Swaney said. “They created some turnovers with their pressure and capitalized on them. We probably weren’t as careful with the ball as we should have been.”
McCort (19-6) advances to the second round to play Northern Cambria. Tyrone ends its season 11-14.
Shannon Yingling scored twice off steals in a 20 second span in the first quarter, and 6-foot post Jessica Mock scored on a put-back following a Tyrone turnover as part of a 14-2 run that boosted McCort to a 13-point lead.
But the Lady Eagles regrouped in the second quarter as guards Emily Ingle and Emily McKenna settled against the Lady Crushers’ man-to-man attack. McNelis scored four points in the first two minutes of the period and McKenna knocked down a pair of free throws to pull Tyrone within seven, 21-14.
That’s when a golden opportunity passed the Lady Eagles by.
With 6:54 left in the half, Mock fouled Stefani Bryan with a moving screen. It was McCort’s seventh team foul, but the officials, citing player control, did not award Bryan foul shots. Tyrone inbounded the ball, and McNelis was fouled by Yingling nine seconds later.
After some prodding by Swaney, the three-man crew realized its mistake in calling the Mock foul a player control foul, and sent both Bryan and McNelis to the foul line for two straight 1-and-1 opportunities.
Both players missed the front end, and thirty seconds later, Tiffany Bradford missed the front end of another 1-and-1. Had the group made all six shots, it could have been a 21-20 game. Had they made just 4 of 6 the Lady Eagles would have been within a single basket.
Instead, McCort went on a 12-3 run to make it 33-17 with 1:12 left in the half. It was 35-20 at halftime, and Tyrone was forced to take more defensive chances in the second half.
For a while, it nearly worked, as the Lady Eagles employed 2-1-2 full-court pressure and a 1-3-1 half-court trap. But while it gave Tyrone better shot opportunities in the open court, it opened things up for Yingling and senior point guard Rachel Price, who found the open players away from the Lady Eagles’ double-teams, most often Mock.
Mock had six in the third quarter, on her way to a 14-point night as McCort built a 47-31 lead.
Mock added one more field goal to start the fourth quarter, as did Yingling and Price in a 9-0 run to start the period. That combined with Tyrone’s woeful shooting – the Lady Eagles went 1 for 9 in the fourth – ended any hopes for a Tyrone comeback.
HOOP NOTES: Price led the Lady Crushers with a game-high 15 points, while Yingling added 11 … McCort made 13 of 24 shots in the first half (54 percent) … McKenna added nine for Tyrone. She finishes the season with 310 points (12.4 ppg.) while McNelis ends with 401 (16 ppg.) … McNelis becomes only the third player in Lady Eagle history to register back-to-back seasons with 400 or more points, joining Sarah Grazier (1995-96 and 1996-97) and Nic DelBaggio (1996-97 and 1997-98), who both went over 500 in consecutive seasons … Tyrone will return seven seniors and nine letter-winners next season.
BISHOP McCORT 56, TYRONE 34
TYRONE – McNelis 4 0-1 9; Hoover 2 2-4 6; McKenna 3 3-4 9; Lloyd 2 1-2 5; Ingle 1 1-2 3; Roth 0 0-0 0; Bradford 1 0-1 2; Bryan 0 0-1 0; Long 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 7-15 34.
BISHOP McCORT – Michaels 2 0-0 4; Price 5 3-3 15; Yingling 5 0-0 11; Mock 6 2-2 14; Basile 1 0-1 2; Pioli 3 0-0 6; McIntyre 0 1-4 1; Ayres 1 1-2 3; Weaver 0 0-0 0; Herbick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23 7-12 56.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
TYRONE 8 12 11 3 – 34
BISHOP McCORT 21 14 12 9 – 56
THREE POINT GOALS: Tyrone 1 (McNelis 1) Bishop McCort 3 (Price 2, Yingling 1)
